Mitch Arvidson

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Member for: 11 months 3 weeks

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Iowa Gov. Reynolds indicates a focus on criminal justice reform for her 2020 legislative program

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Friday, November 1, 2019 at 01:00 AM

A new working group in Iowa will look for ways to reduce recidivism among former offenders and eliminate racial bias from the state’s criminal justice system.

Gov. Kim Reynolds asked the group, chaired by Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg — a former state public defender — to deliver recommendations by December, to inform several proposals she will submit to legislators when they reconvene in January.

The racial disparity in Iowa’s criminal justice system is indicated by Bureau of Justice Statistics and census data from 2017 — black Iowans are incarcerated at a rate 9.5 times higher than white Iowans, which is tied with Nebraska for the second highest rate in the Midwest. Both states trail Wisconsin (11.7), and are just ahead of Minnesota (9.2) and Illinois (8.2).

Wisconsin working with counties on overhaul of where and how juveniles are housed, treated

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Monday, October 14, 2019 at 10:54 AM

Wisconsin remains on a path to dramatically overhaul its juvenile justice system, but to get to the finish line, the state may need to find more money than originally expected.

AB 953, a bipartisan bill passed in 2018, aims to keep most young offenders in smaller, regional facilities, rather than locked up in a larger, faraway youth prison in northern Wisconsin. That goal aligns with research on how to best rehabilitate young people, says Mary Jo Meyers, director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.

State policies drive down Kansas' juveniles-in-custody population

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Monday, June 24, 2019 at 03:53 PM

Three years ago, with their passage of SB 367, Kansas legislators remade the state's juvenile justice system.

A correctional facility for juveniles would soon close, the state would rely much less on “group homes” to house low-level offenders, and several alternatives to incarceration would be introduced into the system.

The result: Between 2015 and 2018, the monthly average of Kansas’ juvenile custody population dropped by 63 percent.

Nebraska seeks answers to prison overcrowding; Michigan sees results from its policy changes

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Thursday, May 16, 2019 at 02:32 PM

Prison overcrowding is one of the most persistent and confounding problems facing state criminal justice systems, and the issue is especially pertinent in the Midwest — home to three of the nation’s five most overcrowded prison systems. ...

Time to bail on cash bail? A growing number of states are scrutinizing current systems, and exploring alternatives such as use of risk-assessment tools

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Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 05:24 PM

Bail, in its most ideal form, serves two purposes. First, it maintains the American ideal of innocent until proven guilty by allowing suspects to continue their daily lives as normally as possible while they await further court actions. Second, it incentivizes the...

Question of the Month: How does the pay of the Midwest's elected constitutional officers compare to the rest of the country?

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Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 05:14 PM

In January, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed SB 3531...

U.S. Supreme Court case from Indiana challenges states' use of asset forfeitures, criminal fines

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Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 12:21 PM

In November, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could dramatically limit states’ and localities’ ability to levy criminal fines and asset forfeitures. The central question in ...

Michigan turns to objective parole to reduce strain on its corrections system

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Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 11:29 AM

The Michigan Legislature has codified the use of an objective, evidence-based scoring system that determines a prisoner’s probability of parole success. Under ...